Occasionally lawyers still call in asking if it’s ethically permissible to place data in the cloud and often wanting to talk about the associated risks. I get it. For those who haven’t intentionally moved to the cloud already, trying to understand the risks and learning how to responsibly manage them can be a bit intimidating. Thankfully, a number of ethics opinions have been issued on this topic over the years so the answer to their questions is usually a rather straight forward one. Basically, it’s yes as long as you do your due diligence on the vendor and couple that with taking appropriate steps to see that your data is properly secured in transit as well as when at rest.

You’ve just been through some very intense contract negotiations for a new client and now that things are wrapping up, this client thought the time was right to let you know that once your work is complete, you are to turn over everything in your file. In short, you’ve just been informed you are not to retain anything relating to this matter. As a risk guy, I now have serious concerns. If you comply, how in the world could you defend yourself in a subsequent malpractice claim? Remember, the client will have complete control of the file. Admittedly, this kind of situation doesn’t happen often; but it does happen. So, let’s talk about your options if you ever find yourself in a similar pickle.

As I often like to do, let me share two brief stories. The first involves a criminal defense lawyer. This lawyer represented a client who staunchly refused to allow the lawyer to call his girlfriend to testify at trial. There may have been other witness who the lawyer could have called as well; however, the client simply refused to ever discuss the matter. Here’s the problem, this client has somehow always managed to find his way out of trouble; but this time was going to be different and the lawyer knew it. This time the client was likely to spend a serious amount of time behind bars unless she could find a way to convince her client to work with her……

For the past 20 years, I have worked for an insurance company that insures lawyers for their malpractice. Trust me when I say I get it. There are going to be times when an insured doesn’t necessarily agree with every decision the company must make in trying to resolve his or her claim. That’s going to happen. What I don’t get is when an insured makes a decision to prevent us from helping at all.

There may be a time when a client wants to speak directly with the other side simply hoping to move the process forward. Truth be told, I’ve been there as a client. It felt as if my legal matter wasn’t progressing as fast as I thought it should and it seemed to me that the attorneys were the ones getting in the way. I started to wonder if I couldn’t move things along by just having a one on one with the other side. So, what does a good attorney do?

Solo attorneys sometimes land in an office share setting. And look, I get it. The reasons for doing so can be compelling. There’s the savings on overhead, the presence of others who can provide personal and professional support, and the list goes on. While I have no desire to quash anyone’s desire to work in such a setting, I do feel compelled to share a story; because sometimes it’s just too easy to minimize and even ignore potential problems.

If you tell your clients that you will add a 20% surcharge to your fee for work you have to do on weekends, surely that must be reasonable. If it is, how about a 50% surcharge? Is that reasonable? How about a 200% surcharge? Read and learn.